Adventures to, in, around Europe and back! DAY 2

We woke up eleven A.M, showered and met everyone downstairs and headed to the tour managers (Max) home town of Besancon, France. The drive was about two hours and Max took us on a scenic route to avoid tolls and to give us a view of the countries rolling green hills filled with cows and horses grazing lazily and some amazing architecture.
We stopped by Max's friends house, Zombie (he told us his real name but I can't remember it). He lives with his parents in an quiet neighborhood with huge green yards (front and back). Zombies mom was tending to her garden and stopped for a moment for introductions, no english but she had a great smile and seemed genuinely happy to meet us.
After meeting Zombies mom, we toured the backyard enjoyed the peace and then headed to the front and hung out in the drive way. As we were all sitting around, talking and having some lager Zombies mom came and presented me with a bunch of Lily of the Valley Flowers (they look like tiny little white bells and smell so fresh!). I was told that May 1st is a holiday as a springtime celebration and women around the country a presented with bunches of Lily of the Valley flowers. Shortly after she brought a bunch out for Nicole as well and told us she made sure she gave us the roots so we could plant them in our yards and have them forever. She was so sweet to think of us and I wish customs would have let us take our plants home.
After our visit we got back on the road to get to the hotel for check in. The hotel was smack dab in the middle of town, surrounded by shops, cafe's, pubs and the architecture, wow. This town has some serious history, it's first recordings were reported by Julius Caeser and I believe was established as Besancon in the 11th century.
Parking the car to check in was an ordeal, I was driving and since the streets are so narrow the locals drive up on the curb and park on the sidewalk. I was not comfortable doing this so I woke Nicole up and made her do the parking job, I was not going to be responsible for popping a tire! After we were all checked in we met back downstairs to head up to Max's place but had to park the car somewhere because we couldn't leave it on the sidewalk. The drive up this hill to park was not bad but the walking down the hill to Max's flat brought us to the realization that we were going to have to walk back up that hill to get the car on 3 days later. At Max's flat, which was another five flights of tiny wooden spiral stairs, we relaxed, drank wine, had some cinnamon vodka and jager shots along with cheese, wine, smoked salmon and quiche. A couple of Max's friends came over and then we went out to a pub for a few hours. Thankfully, non of us had to drive because everything is in walking distance! We headed back to the hotel around two-thirty A.M. It was a long good night hanging out with the locals.